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Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies

It’s the time of year when all the supermarkets start putting out all their fun holiday baking extras – flavored extracts, sprinkles, green and red jimmies, nonpareils, cookie cutters in reindeer and snowman shapes, etc. So the other day, I think it might have been last Tuesday before Thanksgiving…but who knows, I was in Safeway, standing in line to purchase my groceries when what should be on display right by the checkout line…a bag of mint and chocolate chips (oh yes it is a mix of mint green and dark chocolate chips) and a Baker’s unsweetened cocoa bar! AND they were both on sale. Obviously there was no way I could resist.

Just about one week later…ENTER MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP BROWNIES! (or if we’re being seasonal, I guess I could call them Peppermint Brownies…but they lack the red/white of peppermint so I’m sticking with mint chocolate chip brownies).

School is done for the semester and now I can embark on my favorite holiday activity – making desserts galore! While listening to Christmas music of course. For my Christmas playlist on Spotify, see here. Click shuffle. Start baking. :]

Anyway, brownies! So taking the Unbelievably Delicious Brownies recipe and altering it a bit, we get minty-chocolatey-deliciousness. Should that actually be chocolatey-minty-deliciousness? I’ve never been good with that adjective ordering thing.

A stick of butter, plus extras, a bunch of sugar, and the semi-hidden unsweetened cocoa squares in my pseudo-bain-marie. Okay, fine it’s just a glass bowl precariously balanced on a pot of simmering water. I make do, okay?

Mmm…grainy-sugar-butter-chocolate-mixture.

Out of the oven! You can sort of see the green chips poking through.

Mmm…look at that crunchy top, and beneath is the most dense, chewy, amazing brownie EVER.

You know you would eat that in one bite. Don’t lie. It’s not like I ate multiple bites at midnight when these brownies came out of the oven….no, I would never do anything like that.

Preheat your oven to 325°F. Grease the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with butter. (Quick tip: unwrap the top of the butter stick you are about to use, and rub that all over the pan before using the butter in your recipe.)

Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa squares, and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a pot of barely simmering water (if you have a bain-marie, now is the time to use it. If not, just make sure the bowl does not sink into the pot, you just want it to sit on top of it. Warning, it will get VERY HOT. Handle with care. Also, you could do this in the microwave as well). Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is gritty but entirely incorporated. Carefully remove the bowl from the hot water and set aside until the mixture is warm, not hot. Since I wanted to use my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, I poured the mixture into the KitchenAid bowl and popped it in the fridge for about 5 – 7 minutes to let it cool. It is important to let it cool so that your eggs do not cook when you add them.

Stir in the vanilla and peppermint extract. Add the eggs, one at a time if mixing by hand, if using a mixer, you may add them all at once. Mix until combined. Once everything is incorporated, begin to mix in the flour until you have a nice smooth, chocolate batter. Pour in your bag of dark chocolate and mint morsels. Mix until combined. Pour the batter into your prepared dish.

Bake 25 – 30 minutes, or until a jiggle of the dish shows that it is mostly set, and a toothpick in the middle returns with a slight bit of moist batter. I would recommend rotating about halfway through the baking process. Ovens can be such tricksome things.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a rack.

Or burn your mouth as you insist on taking a bite even though it’s only been out of the oven for 5 mins. It’s not like I do these things, I’m just warning you. You know how it is. I’m just looking out for you.

Cut & enjoy! Or eat right out of the pan. I won’t judge.

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The base of these brownies is seriously the best brownies I’ve ever had. They don’t need frosting or mix-ins. BUT those kinds of things only make them even more amazing. Do try and let me know what mix-ins are your favorite for the holidays (and whenever).

Alright, enough listening to me ramble, go get to baking and Christmas-music-listening!